Parliamentary Correspondent Patrick Daly looks at the £1 billion deal Theresa May struck with Northern Ireland’s DUP to keep her minority government in power.

How many times did we hear Conservatives say it during the election campaign?

“There is no magic money tree,” was how Theresa May put it when asked by a nurse why public sector workers had not received a pay rise in years.

But it appears that, when it came to keeping her minority government in power, no price was too high for the Prime Minister.

On Monday, the Government confirmed that the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) had agreed to support the Prime Minister on key votes – a deal called a ‘confidence and supply’ arrangement – in exchange for £1billion of investment into Northern Ireland.

Other arrangements and facets were put in place along with the lump sum, including keeping the winter fuel allowance – costing £8.5bn over the next 5 years – as well as £750million in post-Brexit subsidies for Northern Irish farmers.

The Labour Party immediately seized on the deal, asking where the extra cash was coming from and if other regions, especially England – which sees less funding per head than any other UK region – would reap the benefits of additional spending pledges under this Government.

Melanie Onn, Labour MP for Great Grimsby, criticised the DUP money

Grimsby MP Melanie Onn said Grimsby voters would “rightly be angry” to hear that other regions were benefiting from the snap election outcome of a hung parliament while local public services in North East Lincolnshire continued to suffer.

"During the General Election campaign, the Conservatives told us that there was no money to end the pay freeze on public sector workers, invest properly in our NHS, hire new police officers, or stop the massive cuts they are making to schools’ funding,” said Ms Onn.

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“But now that the Conservatives need to do a deal to cling on to power, suddenly billions of pounds has been found from down the back of the sofa in order to buy the votes of the DUP.

“I think people in Great Grimsby will rightly be angry that Northern Ireland is receiving huge concessions from the Government while we aren’t getting a penny extra for our local services, roads or rail links.”

In Parliament, Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry asked the First Secretary of State, Damian Green, whether he had found “the key to the secret garden” where the magic money tree was planted.

Labour shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry

Mrs Thornberry added: “Or is the truth that like everything else that this Government say and do, it can all be ditched if it helps them to hang on to power?”

The haranguing over a deal between the Tories and the DUP took longer than a fortnight to iron out.

But the outcome is that the 10 DUP MPs in Westminster have now agreed to vote with the Government at landmark moments during the Parliament, including at the Queen’s Speech, the Budget and on Brexit and national security issues.

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The bargaining deal includes money for infrastructure investment in Northern Ireland, more health, education and regeneration cash and promises to look at devolving corporate tax rates to Stormont, along with possible local control over VAT and air passenger duty.

The terms of the deal will also see the Tories abandon their manifesto pledge to reduce the triple lock pension to a double lock, and also to scrap their plans to get rid of the winter fuel allowance for all but the poorest of elderly people in society.

DUP Leader Arlene Foster has secured an extra £1billion in spending for Northern Ireland as part of her party's deal to support the minority Tory outfit

Keeping the winter fuel allowance – a £200-300 annual heating subsidy paid to all pensioners, including millionaires – will cost about £8.5 billion by 2022 and the triple lock, whereby the state pension is guaranteed to increase by 2.5 per cent or more a year, could cost up to £15bn.

The confidence and supply arrangement will run for the next 5 years, taking Mrs May through to 2022 – should she remain Prime Minister for that long.

However, the £1bn for Northern Ireland will be paid upfront over the next 2 years in order to guarantee the funding against a collapse of the Government.

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Mrs May said: “I welcome this agreement which will enable us to work together in the interest of the whole United Kingdom, give us the certainty we require as we embark on our departure from the European Union, and help us build a stronger and fairer society at home.”

Martin Vickers, Tory MP for Cleethorpes, defended the deal, saying that financial incentives were part-and-parcel of a hung parliament.

“The main priority is to ensure continuation of a stable government,” he said.

“With all the challenges the Government is facing, the last thing we want now is a government that’s falling apart.

“The reality is, the electorate decide the make-up of Parliament. Mrs May and I, along with the rest of the Conservatives, would much rather it had been made-up differently but we have to accept the verdict of the voters.

“Just as when you had a hung parliament with the Lib-Lab pact in place [where the Liberals backed the minority Labour government in 1977-78], when I’m sure more money would have been spent in Liberal constituencies, the reality is you have to create a majority.”

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Some argue that Mrs May never needed to cosy up to the DUP – a party with links to the Ulster Defence Association, a paramilitary group in Northern Ireland responsible for more than 400 deaths – given that a no confidence vote in the Tory leadership would have opened the door to a minority government spearheaded by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The DUP are no fans of Mr Corbyn given his links with Sinn Fein, their Republican and fierce rivals in Stormont.

Given their dislike of the thought of the Islington North MP being in Downing Street, the DUP were always likely to back the Tories when it mattered – even without a deal.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party (Image: Jon Corken)

But Mr Vickers said it would have been too difficult for the PM to try and govern without negotiating a working majority.

The Conservatives lost 13 seats at the General Election, leaving them with 318 MPs – 8 short of a majority.

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“You have to have some sort of stability,” said Mr Vickers, a former Scartho councillor.

“The PM has to have the confidence she will get things passed. She doesn’t want to be sitting on the edge of the green bench every night thinking, ‘Will they vote for me or won’t they?’.

“That’s the same situation Labour found themselves in in the 1970s and that is why they were forced to do a deal with the Liberals.”

Mr Vickers said a hung parliament also meant Tory backbenchers would have more power as even just a small rebellion could bring down the Government.

But he also conceded that it allowed another party – in this case the DUP – to hold their own bargaining chips.

Former Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan agreed a Lib-Lab pact to help his minority administration stay in power between 1977-78

Asked whether he believed the decision would play badly in England – traditionally the Tories’ heartland – he said there was “no doubt” that funding formulas “discriminated” against England.

“The art of politics is to have balance between all the competing interests and in society generally,” he said.

“All governments manage it for a little while. But they eventually lose their touch. I don’t think we have yet.

“What we have to do is regroup, rethink and ask ourselves serious questions about why the result was as it was, but at the same time, remember that we did increase our share of the vote by 5 per cent and that more people voted for us 3 weeks ago than voted for Tony Blair’s government in 1997.”

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The Tories may be holding their own inquests into why the General Election did not produce the majority they so desired, but, in Northern Ireland, the thoughts have turned to more pressing matters – like forming a government.

The next step for the Government is to recommence power-sharing talks between the DUP and Sinn Fein in Belfast after discussions ground to a halt in March. Northern Ireland has been without a devolved Stormont government since.

The British government has often been a neutral voice and arbitrator in such negotiations but commentators have highlighted that, for the first time, Republicans are likely to see Westminster’s ruling party as on the side of the unionists, having just completed a deal which relies on their support for the next 5 years.

But one thing both sides are likely to be able to agree on is that having an extra £1bn in the bank for Northern Ireland – at the rest of the UK’s expense – is no bad thing.